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40 The PCB Design Magazine • February 2017 You've probably noticed that I sometime discuss movies in this column to make a larger point about PCB design. Yes, I confess that I en- joy a bucket of popcorn and a couple of hours wasted in the local cinema just as much as the next guy. One of the movies that I have enjoyed the most over the past several years is the first "Iron Man" from 2008. Lately, the whole Mar- vel cinematic universe has gotten wild, with gods, monsters and space aliens. This isn't a bad thing but they have gotten away from the purity of engineering that made the first Iron Man movie so good. Let's face it; the lead character, Tony Stark, is the engineer's engineer. In that first movie, he designed the Iron Man suits right in front of us on the big screen, and he used some awesome-looking de- sign tools in his lab. That got me to wondering: What would our world of design be like if we had some of that magic? I think everyone would agree that advanc- es in system resources, improvements in data specifications, and more automation would be welcome enhancements. But I'm trying to get past the obvious incremental advances that we normally see in the next feature release of our favorite CAD tool du jour. Instead, I'm looking for those improvements that we can only imag- ine or dream about today. So, if we're going to dream, then let's dream big. Just how would you spec out the design system of tomorrow? It would seem to me that the most obvious improvements would be in the user interface. A common complaint that I hear from designers is being constrained by having to use a mouse. One user even suggested that instead of a mouse that they would like to see the application fol- low their eye movements instead. Would that be helpful to you, being able to use your eyes to control the place and route of your design in- by Tim Haag INTERCEPT TECHNOLOGY Design Tools of Tomorrow: A Real "Marvel" FEATURE COLUMN: TIM'S TAKEAWAYS